Cheap Detour (DVD) (Tom Neal, Ann Savage) (Edgar G. Ulmer) Price

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Customer Reviews of Detour

No exit for anyone caught in this Detour
Film noir describes Detour well. Everything about this film is dark, from the black and white print shot mostly at night, to the plot, no hope for any of the characters, to the acting, not a smile to be seen among any of the principal actors. Nor is there any reason for smiles in this pessimistic look at the role fate plays in our lives. No exit for anyone caught in this Detour.

Why watch? Movie buffs want to know just what can be done on a shoestring budget when you have a story to tell and a competent cast. Tom Neal and Ann Savage are the couple from hell. Savage is as her name suggests and Neal appears to be too stupid to escape from her threat of going to the police to accuse him of a murder he did not commit while hitching a ride to California.

The story is told in flashback while Neal sits in a roadside diner contemplating his fate. The cost of filming the diner scenes, and the rest of the movie, for that matter, could not have been cheaper. It is fascinating to see what can be done with no money, but a little imagination and a fairly good script.

This film is recommended only for B movie buffs who delight in watching the second half of the bill, when going to the movies meant a feature and filler. Detour is the B side of the show and, as sometimes happens, the throw away is better than the feature.

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"Okay, whad'ya do with his body?"
As soon as Al Roberts's (Tom Neal) doleful face appears in the opening minutes of Detour, viewers can readily suspect that he is in deep trouble. Told in a narrative voiceover, Detour (1944) epitomizes the tragic innocence of a protagonist trapped in a conspiratorial entanglement of deceit. Al Roberts is one of the most empathetic figures ever to apear in a noir film. Roberts justifies his unlawful actions by convincing viewers that the truth will only bring him unjustifiable punishment. Ann Savage as Vera gives an unforgetable performance as the most cantankerous dame ever to appear in a black and white film. Within the genre of noir, Vera's deviousness and quest for manipulative control are unparalled. Both alluring and repulsive, Vera strikes out at Al's weakness and exploits his vunerability with the skill of a poker player holding a full house against two pair. Operating with a sneering face and an unflattering voice, Vera's powerful feminine instincts pounce on Al's weakened masculinity. With a tight script, bounded by Vera's caustic lines-(Shad up, your making noise like a husband); Detour convincingly moves through its skeptical plot structure. Director Edgar G. Ulmer should be praised for establishing the excellent timing of the dialogue exchanges between Vera and Al. Savage's lines are delivered with snap and laced with vinegar. Sometimes Savage crowds Neal's responses with her leads, but that is thankful, since Neal's delivery is often bland and weak. But then again, what is a guy to do when a girl you just met wants to frame you for murder and says: "I'd hate to see a fella as young as you wind up sniffing that perfume that Arizona hands out free to murderers" With a minimal budget to work from, Ulmer maximized his limited resources. The scenes in the diner, jazz club, and hotel room, ooze with noir realism. Al and girlfriend Sue's (Claudia Drake) night-time stroll along Riverside Drive was cleverly filmed. Detour is the king of B noir films. Why actress Ann Savage never attained major roles in other notable noir films is mystfying. Does anyone know the make and model of the convertible used in the film? Also since reviewers at this site are not allowed to discuss film endings, does anyone know the significance of the police patrol car at the final fade out? I have my own theory.

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Want a ride?
An unshaven and weather-beaten young man sits brooding over a cup of coffee in an anonymous roadside café. A man of means by no means, as Roger Miller would put it. But Al Roberts (Tom Neal) is king of no road, and by the end of DETOUR we wonder whether he is even sovereign over his own soul.
A potential ride in the form of a friendly trucker strikes up a conversation. Where you coming from? West. Where you going to? East.
Roberts is wrong, though. He's coming from Hell and he's going to Nowhere, and the last thing he needs is a chatty trucker along for company.
DETOUR is told in a flashback from that lonely stool. Roberts and his girlfriend work as pianist/singer in a fleabag club out east. Comes a foggy night and she splits up with him to pursue fame out west. Weeks later he calls and they agree to get back together. He'll come out west and they can be married.
Being down at his heels Roberts is forced to hitchhike to California. All goes well until he reaches Arizona, where Fate deals Roberts one nasty hand after another. In short order the innocent Roberts finds and feels himself a hunted man.
DETOUR is a wonderful film. Neal is perfect as the moody young musician who finds himself trapped first by and accident and later by femme fatale Ann Savage, who know his terrible secret and has no scruples against using it against him for her own nefarious purposes. Veteran B-movie director Edgar Ulmer has enough tricks up his sleeves to surmount the Poverty Row studio conditions he was working under. If you're a fan of film noir, or enjoy hard-bitten stories, you'll enjoy DETOUR.

By the way, my thirty year old first edition copy of The Film Encyclopedia had an interesting entry on DETOUR'S star Tom Neal. He received a law degree from Harvard University in 1938. Throughout the forties he appeared in a number of B-movies, usually cast as a tough guy. In 1951 he found himself in the middle of a love triangle involving Franchot Tone and Barbara Payton. Neal "smashed" Tone's nose and a scandal ensued. Neal became poison and no studio would employ him, so he became a gardener and later established a landscaping business. In 1965 he was accused of murdering his wife. Able to prove that the gun went off accidentally, Neal had the charges reduced to manslaughter and served a six-year sentence. He died in 1971.